Bharatiya Janata Party veteran Yashwant Sinha, who has had a fallout with the party’s leadership in recent months, on Thursday said that he would not quit the party, and asked it to throw him out if it wished so, PTI reported.

Sinha, who on Tuesday floated a political action group called the Rashtra Manch that would oppose the Centre’s policies, said being a citizen of India is more important than being a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The former finance minister said he had taken up the cause of farmers as no one was talking about their problems, Hindi daily Patrika reported. Sinha announced that on Friday he would take part in a farmers’ agitation against a proposed power project in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur district.

The latest Economic Survey, the senior BJP leader said, had pointed out problems in the education and agricultural sectors as well unemployment. “These problems have not crept up overnight...the government has failed on these counts in the last three years.”

Instead of addressing these problems, the government had gone after those who had challenged the establishment’s narrative, Sinha claimed. “Investigating agencies are being used against people who think differently. Due to this, outside of the BJP, an atmosphere of fear is prevailing in the entire country.”